said Tim Albertsson, looking round at the members of the DARKWOODS team and trying to force a smile, “I guess the message is pretty clear.” Jamie Carpenter didn’t respond; his gaze was locked on the wide tree in front of them. Nailed to its trunk was a wolf, its stomach sliced open and pinned back, exposing its insides. Maggots crawled across its organs and gathered in a squirming pile where the animal’s blood had pooled at the base of the tree. “Right,” said Van Orel, his face pale. “Don’t go any further.” “Subtle,” said Engel, her voice little more than a whisper. The six Operators were standing at the very edge of the Teleorman Forest, at the perimeter of their target area. The helicopter that had carried them the short distance from the Schwartzhaus had set down in the same field where Grey had woken up barely three days earlier, confused and hungry and missing forty-eight hours. The desecrated tree stood at the northern edge of the field, to one side of a path that led into the forest, its disembowelled warning strung up for all to see.
